Chapter 17 - Beneath The Floorboards
Flashlight beams cut through the thick haze of dust as Thomas and Victoria walked across the decaying wooden floorboards toward the central loading bay.
This was where the old steam locomotives used to park before the station was decommissioned back in the nineteen-seventies.
“Lily, do you remember which spot your mom pointed to?” Thomas asked gently, kneeling down beside the child in the dim light.
Lily pointed a small finger toward the corner where a heavy iron track bumper bolted into the floorboards sat covered in rust.
“Right there, Uncle Thomas. Underneath the metal plate where the big bolts are missing,” Lily said with surprising confidence.
Thomas dropped to his knees, inserting his crowbar beneath the corroded iron plate and throwing his muscular weight into the lever.
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With a loud, metallic screech that echoed off the brick walls, the heavy plate popped loose, revealing a hidden compartment underneath.
Inside sat a small, velvet-lined mahogany box wrapped in oiled waterproof cloth, bearing the engraved initials of Thomas and Sarah’s late father.
